Palantir Technologies, a global data analytics company co-founded by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, denies any connection to a Hong Kong bitcoin mining company that claims to be owned by Palantir Technologies, according to International Business Times. The mining company, CoinFac Ltd., promises to deliver faster bitcoin mining using quantum computing. A Palantir Technologies spokesperson […]

Bitcoin Press Releases: Creditbit is an open source digital currency protocol which is 10 times better than Bitcoin when it comes to the speed and rate of transactions. Creditbit prepares for mass adoption by offering an user-friendly and secure cryptocurrency easily accessible to users worldwide. May 13, 2016, Ljubljana, Slovenia – Creditbit is one of […]

The financial services company intends to enhance its tech center and innovation hub in Bangalore, India, according to the Economic Times. The hub currently has 750 employees, but the company plans to expand to 1,000 workers in the next 12 to 18 months. The goal is to foster a greater local presence and ultimately forge new partnerships with Indian startups.

The Bangalore center will focus on two areas of Visa's business: APIs and blockchain technology.

Visa wants to enlist local developers for projects tied to APIs and developer platforms, said TR Ramachandran, Visa's country manager for India and South Asia. Such projects should help with the development of initiatives tied to Visa Developer, the company's recently debuted API hub and testing platform.

Visa has also publicly discussed its focus on blockchain technology innovation in India. This positions Visa as one of numerous financial companies that are investing heavily in blockchain technology, which could potentially increase efficiency and streamline several processes within the financial industry.

The company has invested in its own research and development, but it also recently invested in blockchain consortium Chain, which just debuted an open source protocol for constructing a blockchain network.

Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander.

That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping.

As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain.

Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year.

Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well.

Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years.

In full, the report:

Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain

Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development

Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable

Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them

Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP

Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of blockchain technology.

Bitcoin price has spent the day above $450 (Bitstamp) but the market has not made progress either way. We take a look at the most significant boundaries for this years price action – and the levels that will confirm that a trending move has broken out. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour […]

Dr. Greg Irving, a Clinical Lecturer from the University of Cambridge, recently authored a research project on the potential impact of blockchain technology on scientific research. While the use is not novel in principle, it underscores the very reason blockchain was created. Why Scientific Research? Irving, and rightfully so, says that in order to truly trust […]

Last week R3 sent out an investment proposal to banks who currently pay it an advisory fee, after several expressed an interest in investing in the company.

Financial News, which first reported the fundraising, says R3 is offering equity in a new company that would control the Corda platform, which will be spun off. R3's development lab will not be included in the new company under the current proposals.

But two sources close to the negotiations confirmed to BI that a major European bank is kicking up a fuss about the terms being offered by R3. At least two other banks are also said to have some more limited reservations about R3's offer.

A source close to the bank, which they would not name, said it is concerned about not having a stake in any of the intellectual property developed by R3's lab, despite sharing knowledge and data with the startup.

The source, who did not want to be named, said there are also concerns about the size of the cheque R3 is asking banks to write. The source said: "Banks want to diversify risk, not get locked into one single solution."

However, another source with knowledge of the negotiations stressed that it was only a small minority of voices within the consortium that are raising objections, saying: "If you have any big thing that's being created there are going to be some people who want to stand outside and throw rocks."

The source, who did not want to be named for fear of breaching confidentiality clauses, told BI suggested that the large European bank was trying to "cause waves" within the organisation to get its way.

R3 has signed up 42 of the world's leading banks to collaborate on blockchain experiments. Members include Barclays, Santander, Nomura, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and HSBC.

A third source close to R3 who didn't want to be named because they aren't authorized to speak told BI: "The initial feedback from the majority of the banks is that it is a well constructed and considered proposition and most are actively considering it.

"Everyone knows that progressing an initiative of this scope at the rapid pace being demanded by the industry requires significant capital and resources."

The source stressed that the documents sent to banks last week are also just initial proposals and are not set in stone. An executive at a UK bank that is considering investing in R3 also told BI that the deal was in the "straw man phase" with much of the final details still "to be determined."

The executive, who did not want to be named because they have signed confidentiality agreements, said it is "frustrating" that some negative noises are emerging around the investment and said it is "not reflective of where the consortium is." They added that R3 is making "good headway."

R3 said it would not comment on commercially sensitive matters when contacted by BI.

The world’s largest payments network is expanding its new technology center in India to focus on blockchain technology development for its global endeavors. VISA is going gung-ho on the blockchain technology and is setting up the infrastructure and personnel to push blockchain development, out of a development center in Bangalore, India. The payments giant […]

In a report coming out of Taiwan, an individual who founded and ran a bitcoin company has been arrested on charges of fraud, breach of trust and document forgery after allegedly causing losses to 49 customers in a month. The chairman of Taipei-based Digital Bitcoin Company, a man identified by his surname Ho has been […]

Nick Szabo, a cryptographer who worked on an early bitcoin prototype, played a key role in developing smart contracts and has been suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto, is now raising money for a bitcoin/blockchain startup, according to Quartz. Szabo is trying to raise $3 million, according to unnamed sources and a pitch deck that Quartz […]

Back in 2011, Thailand was the world's largest exporter of rice, accounting for about 30% of the global market.

Then, prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra introduced a controversial rice scheme where the government would pay farmers almost 50% more than market prices.

The idea was that the since almost 40% of Thailand's labor force worked in agriculture, it would make the average Thai wealthier while also creating a rice shortage by taking supply off of the market. In theory, the government would then be able to sell the rice at an even higher price.

However, prices didn't rise as much as the Thai government was anticipating, and then competitors (India and Vietnam) began to flood the market and lower their prices. That left Thailand with a ballooning inventory of rice and warehouses filled to their brims.

Fast forward to 2016, and Yingluck has been out of office for two years after being removed by a military coup. Thailand is now the number two rice exporter in the world, trailing rival India, and its rice stockpile is still enormous.

However, there might finally be some relief in sight. The El Niño of 2015/2016 has caused drought conditions across much of China, India, and Southeast Asia. And while farmers in Thailand and elsewhere in the region are being devastated by the weather, the Thai government has an opportunity to unload a good portion of its stockpile. Here's Deutsche Bank (emphasis ours):

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Thailand's rice inventory is set to drop by almost 50% to 5.2mn MT in 2016 on the back of a projected decline in domestic output to a five-year low of 15.8mn MT.

And the good news doesn't stop there.

Deutsche Bank says (emphasis ours)"

It is highly plausible, in our view, that Thailand would take this El Niño episode as an opportunity to clear its huge stockpile and regain market share as shipments of rival exporters will likely be curbed by reduced domestic output.